- Why one Nigerian agriculture student will not become a farmer.
- Meeting in Kenya on agricultural biodiversity, and other stuff, in October.
- Ecuador and access to genetic resources (in Spanish).
- “Scientists on the verge of releasing new striga-resistant sorghum.” Drought-resistant too! No need for push-pull then?
- One wacky plant breeder’s story.
- Attractive local bunny in trouble. Not what you’re thinking, get your mind out of the gutter.
- Forest bonds in the offing. Genebank bonds, anyone?
- Climate change adaptation in Africa: examples of genetic and agronomic fixes. Need both, I guess.
Punjabis saving iconic Italian cheese
It was almost exactly 345 years ago that Samuel Pepys famously dug a hole in his garden in order to save his parmesan cheese from the Great Fire of London:
…and I took the opportunity of laying all the papers of my office that I could not otherwise dispose of. And in the evening Sir W. Pen and I did dig another, and put our wine in it; and I my Parmazan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things.
I like to think the great diarist would have been fascinated to know both that production of that caseinic wonder continues to this day around Parma (with the no doubt invaluable protection of the European Union), and that it is currently largely in the hands of Sikh immigrants:
In the middle of the Po Valley, where the xenophobic Northern League has its core voters, there is now a symbol that coexistence between different cultures and religions can work very well. In Pessina Cremonese, between Mantua and Cremona, the largest Sikh temple in Europe was recently inaugurated. And all agree: without this Indian folk and religious community this area would be much poorer, and typical Italian products such as Parmesan cheese would perhaps be no more.
Nibbles: Patents, Scientific American Blogs, Leek turnovers
- India to patent tribal medicinal knowledge. Community biodiversity register of medicinal plants, apparently with scientific backup.
- Scientific American Blogs devote the day to food — which includes agriculture.
- Language Log investigates leek turnovers. And you thought we were OCD?
Starch-free potatoes to be protected
Malwi potatoes are significant because they contain negligible quantities of starch…
Wow, that would certainly be worth a Geographic Indication now, wouldn’t it? In fact, I’m reliably informed that what is happening is that potatoes grown in Malwa are high in starch because of the relatively hot temperatures there compared to other potato-growing regions of India. That makes them great for processing, whereas the same varieties grown elsewhere are apparently not suitable for this. Whether that makes Malwi potatoes eligible for GI is at best debatable, I would have said. But I’d be interested to hear from the experts.
Nibbles: Seed savers, Lemons, Assam Rice, Striga control, Amaranth, Bearded pigs, Banana, Early nutrition
- Seed savers: everyone’s got an angle, from Seeds of Hope and Change to Seed Bank Bingo.
- Italian lemons enjoying a renaissance. In California, natch.
- India registers Assam farmers’ traditional rice varieties. In other news, rice water “is also used as shampoo, according to community elders”.
- US$9 million to “implement and evaluate four approaches” to controlling Striga in Africa. One day we’ll know.
- Denver Botanic Gardens does amaranth.
- Evolution of bearded pigs. Good to know. Good to eat?
- Bioversity banana team guest blogs at Annals of Botany. But surely they have a blog of their own. No, wait…
- Agriculture is bad for your health.